Cosmic Love
by redheadturkey
Summary: A man displaced from his own world gets involved with one Jack Bauer during a drunken encounter after a party. Said man, however, is afflicted with a natural state of hermaphroditism.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one: Meetings and Meanings

Sunlight filtered into a hotel room somewhere in Santa Monica, waking the redhead stretched out crossways on the queen size bed who let out a muffled groan as the pounding behind his swollen eye lids woke him the rest of the way. Now, Reno Kiribani was used to waking up with a hangover, Gods know he'd done it often enough, but what was new was waking up with a blond man's arm flopped over his side, the man in question, familiar to him only through a few liquor-soaked flashes of memory, still fast asleep. "Wha?" the sound of the voice was raspy with sleep, eyes prying themselves open with much effort.

The one beside him sat up as well, looking equally sleepy. "Who are you, and what are you doing in my hotel room?" the voice belonged to Jack Bauer, CTU agent who had become famous for all of the imaginative ways in which he could kill another human being. He didn't remember anything but a few scattered bits and pieces of the previous night, though he supposed the fact that he was sticky and stank of sex and semen should tell the story rather easily.

"Oh Gods, I stink, I'm sore, and there's blood on the bed. What the fuck did we do last night?" Reno's spiky red bangs hung down in his face as he got up to head toward the shower, realizing suddenly how _sore_ he was when he did. "Oh God. . .you didn't. . .we didn't. . ." he couldn't hear the muttering behind him through the rushing horror.

"I'm not gay, I'm not gay, I'm not gay." The words were muttered by Jack as the man resisted the urge to bang his head against the wall.

"Sleeping with me doesn't make you gay, yo. I got both, it makes you bi." Reno was about tempted to throw a pillow at him, he didn't like being thought of as anything less than normal, and he especially didn't like the fact that he'd let someone take him _there_.

"That's a comfort." Jack drawled, wanting nothing more than to beat the son of a bitch for being so damn smug right in that moment. Right before he leaned over and quietly vomited, though if asked he would say it had been the hangover.

Reno glared at him. "Well fuck you very much for implying I'm some kind of a freak because I was born the way I was, asshole." He huffed in an offended manner before he marched into the bathroom, red ponytail flying out behind the slender frame like a warning flag, carried by the wind of his passing. He didn't like it being said or even implied that he was such, and Jack, however unintentionally, had done just that.

Jack groaned, walking to the door. "Look, I didn't mean to imply that, ok? You're not a freak, I'm the one that's fucked in the head." His proclamation was met by a bar of soap flying out the bathroom door and nailing him in the forehead. Ok, maybe vomiting when the guy had made that announcement hadn't been the best idea, especially when he seemed to be rather temperamental and the slim musculature as well as the sharp, agile motions said the man probably knew at least a few dozen ways to kill, himself.

"Don't even bother to fucking call me." Reno barked as he got himself showered and redressed, marching out the door. To tell the truth, though he wasn't about to admit it, he was more than a little freaked out at the thought that he'd gotten drunk enough to let someone have the hole in front, he'd shot at people for trying it before, no one ever got to touch that. Thought admittedly Jack was the kind of guy he'd go for if ever did decide to let someone risk it.

Jack let out another groan. "Great, just great. I have managed to piss off a guy I don't even know and have managed to sleep with him and not even remember the previous night in the bargain. Fuck-my-life."

He got himself showered and dressed as well, running a comb through his hair, noting how red his blue eyes looked in the mirror. "God I'm hung over. Kim is going to bitch me out." His thoughts turned to his daughter. She tended to be extraordinarily protective of her father and had no problem at all with speaking up if something he had done displeased her. He swept his fingers through his hair and shook his head. He was badass, yes, but even he had to admit he was somewhat out of his depth trying to deal with the situation he'd found himself in.

Another head shake, and he got his things together to head out the door. He didn't have any assignments for the day that he knew of, he was supposed to meet his daughter for lunch, and then he had every intention of going and getting drunk, again, maybe adding a few other illicit substances to _that_, and going back home, alone. He had no intention of repeating the previous night's experience. "Maybe it's time I quit drinking. Wait, no, not going to do that, never going to do that, I must be losing my mind to even think about it."

With one last look in the mirror he walked out, locking the door of the room behind him and heading to check out.

Reno slammed his hands into the steering wheel as he pulled away from the hotel, aghast at himself. "Dammit, I can't believe I did that! That's just." He shook his head, teal eyes with the faint gleam of mako in their depths closing briefly as he tried to remember the previous night, and not having a whole lot of success. "I should have stopped drinking after the first half a fifth of scotch, and I sure as fuck shouldn't have smoked that blunt, or taken some of those fucking pills. That was not the smartest thing I have ever fucking done."

The fact that he hadn't seen his own world in three years hadn't helped a thing, he was, in all ways, an alien. It had taken a good bit of finagling for him to find a way to get the documentation to be able to work on this world at all, and that had been through people he'd managed to do favors for. He missed his friends, he missed his apartment in Edge, missed his life, but there was little he could do about it now but survive. And he'd done a fairly good job of it.

Now, his loneliness had led him to do something foolish, and he was kicking himself for it. "Rude would tell me I was being an idiot, he hates when I do this impulsive shit that gets me into trouble, and I have a bad fucking habit of it. Getting shitfaced and sleeping with a fucking stranger has to be among the biggest mistakes, though." He lifted up his jacket to toss it into the back, a business card fluttering to the floor of the car.

"Jack Bauer. . .CTU." Reno read the name off the card. "Oh, fuck me. . ." the last three words were a faint moan. He knew who Jack Bauer was, though through reputation more than anything else. The man was as borderline sociopathic as he himself was, and that was only the start of it. Add to that the number of substances the man used and abused on a daily basis and it was a situation that just begged to be mocked.

"Thank God Laney's not here, she would laugh at me so damn hard it isn't even funny." He finally got to the airport, dropped off the car, and got ready to fly back home. Conventions weren't his thing at all, but as a Private Investigator he did what he could to rustle up contacts so he could keep his business going. It was the one he was best suited for after spending multiple years of his life as a Turk, the black operations arm of ShinRa Incorporated. "I have a few fucking days off, thank God, I can take them to get my fucking head together so I don't do something like _that_ again. Sleeping with Jack Bauer wasn't one of my fucking brightest moves."

He finally just stopped thinking about it, because if he didn't he was going to drive himself insane. "Ok, just calm down, calm down. No sense gettin' all up in fuckin' arms about it now, chances are nothin' will come of it, I bet I'm not fertile anyway, so nothin' to worry about at all. Just forget it happened, and forget I ever met him, I can go back to my fuckin' life and forget any of this ever happened."

Resolved in that much he climbed onto the plane to head back to New York. The flight was several hours, several hours in which he had some time to actual think about the situation at hand. Of course it wouldn't work out that way, he just didn't realize that yet. It wouldn't be for two more months that he would, at which time there would be an even more utter and total freak out than he had upon discovering that he had slept with the CTU agent in the first place.

Jack meanwhile had met Kim for lunch before heading back to the house. He was quiet, mostly because he was half afraid of her asking him why he looked like he'd just crawled out of bed and smelled like a whorehouse. He knew if she asked there were going to be questions he didn't know how to answer, at least not to her. "Don't ask, Kim, just trust me, don't ask, you do not want to know." He ignored her look because he knew if he said a word it would only get him in trouble.

The office building was dark inside, the only thing that could be seen inside a pair of round, pale blue eyes. "I called you here because we have a new mission, men." The room was suddenly brightly lit by the flame of an expensive butane lighter, just for a moment, outlining the round and stocky figure and a blood red suit, blond hair wreathed in the smoke from the cigar he'd just lit. If one had the senses for it they would see golden eyes in a shadow behind him, gleaming in the darkness.

President Reginald ShinRa the second smirked at the faces around the room. None of them were familiar to him, but it didn't really much matter. They were all useful in their own ways, men that were as intelligent and hardened as the Turks he had depended on when he'd been home. And he had plans here, as he'd had at home. Mother willed it, it would be done.

_Take this world for me, my son_. The words were whispered in his mind, wrapping around his consciousness like a soft whisper. _Take it, make it ours. What I failed to do on Gaia, I will do here, after all, there are no Children of the Planet to stop me here._


	2. Chapter 2

Two months passed, with things fairly quiet for Jack and Reno both, living on opposite coasts. Reno had taken a few cases, one of them having to do a custody case, the guy turned out to be a total nut, which he'd figured out quickly enough when the guy pulled a gun on him. He finally managed to get to a safe place, behind a dumpster, breathing hard and sweating. "What the Hell? I never get this out of breath." He checked his camera, sighing in relief when he noted it was undamaged, and got to his car.

It was when he went to open it that his vision went black and he passed out next to the driver's side of the car. He didn't hear the people scrambling to his aid when they'd seen him go down, nor the wail of the siren as the ambulance that had been called raced down the street.

It was 20 minutes later when those pale blue green eyes fluttered open again, to see a doctor standing in the doorway. "Welcome back to the world of the waking, Mr. Kiribani." He smiled. "I'm glad to see you've recovered from your small mishap. You are. . .not the norm, I had to have your records faxed from Doctor Maynard's office to be certain what I was dealing with. "

"Doc, don't fuck with me, ok? I wanna know why I passed out so I can get on with my day." Reno's face, the skin that pearl pale tone it always was, with the two crescent shaped marks under his eyes that stood out in relief against the aggressive cheekbones, held an annoyed expression, he hated people playing with him. He really did.

"Well, I'm not certain how to put this gently, so I will say it straight out. Mr. Kiribani, you passed out due to a drop a blood pressure that is very common for someone in your delicate condition." The kindly dark eyes met his. "You are pregnant. Around eight weeks, by my estimate."

Reno's eyes went wide, and his face sheet white, he wasn't even sure what to say to that. "Oh. . oh fuck me, he's going to fucking kill me. He's going to fly out to New York and put a bullet in my God Damn head, and right now I can't say I fucking blame him." Reno knew enough about Jack Bauer to know the man wasn't someone who wanted any more kids, even if that wasn't much. He shook his head, and looked over at the doctor in question. "Thanks. Just give me whatever I need to sign so I can get out of here, I need to break the news to the father, and he's not going to be very happy about the fact at all."

He was given the paperwork, which he signed, then a box of vitamins that he was told he should take one every day, and told he could go home. He paced as he got back to his apartment, debating on how to say it. Jack wasn't going to take this well, he could tell that already, he had to break it in a way that wouldn't have him flipping out. "I need to just say it to him, just tell him. If I just say it real fast, I'll have it over and can calm him down after." Finally he just picks up his phone, and the card that he'd found in his pocket before, and dialed the number on it.

"Hello?" Jack sounded sleepy when he answered the phone. He'd just managed to get to sleep after a rough day of investigating some strange happenings in Los Angeles when the phone had rung. He had no idea who it was, the number wasn't one he recognized, but he'd risked answering it because it wasn't work and it wasn't his daughter.

"Jack. . .we got a small problem." Reno's voice was nervous, he was still trying to work up the courage to actually say it, he knew the reaction would be unpleasant.

"We've got a problem? You told me not to call you again, so I'd like to know what problem you think we have." Jack's voice held a sleepy tone, though a no nonsense edge laced it. He wasn't in the mood to take a bunch of bullshit.

Reno took one deep breath, and it came out in that one blurting exhale. "I'm pregnant, Jack, and you're the father." The words came out in a rush, almost blending together to the point of being unrecognizable, but not quite. It had been the only way he could actually say it.

The response was several moments of dead silence, and a clatter that indicated the phone had been dropped to the floor, followed by a round of cursing that Reno could dimly hear from the other end. Finally, it was picked back up. "Pregnant, you mean, with a baby?"

"Of course I mean with a baby, what did you think I meant pregnant with an alien or something?" Reno was exasperated, on the verge of ripping his hair out. "It's yours, it's gotta be, yo, no one else touches me there, like I said, ever." He started pacing, but Jack wouldn't be able to hear that.

"You. . .planning on keeping it?" Jack didn't want to say that, not in the way it came out, because if there was one thing he remembered from Terri when she was pregnant with Kim, pregnant people were extremely uncertain of temper, and setting off someone like Reno whose temper was not all that stable anyway was not something he wanted to do, he had a headache and didn't want to deal with the yelling.

"No, I hadn't planned on keeping it, but not a whole fucklot I can do now, I'm too far along for them to safely abort." His voice was sharp, but it was mostly due to the fact that though he wasn't saying it aloud, he was terrified, both of raising a kid and the process in and of itself. He heard another curse and a sharp intake of breath, which triggered him to close his eyes, frustration mounting. "Look, I'm sorry if I fucked up your life or something, but I didn't fucking plan this either! But it happened, and all we can do is deal with it."

"Why did you well. . .take a test or something like that?" Jack snapped back at him. "I mean for God's sake the damn sticks are cheap, buy one, piss on it! It's pretty damn simple."

"I had no fucking symptoms until I passed out this morning chasing down some idiot cheating on his wife, and I didn't think it was possible! I haven't been sick, I haven't had any weird, fucked up cravings, everything has been utterly fucking normal up to now!" Reno had begun shouting almost over the phone, he was irritated, frightened, and just all around unsure of what to do about it. "Listen, I'm not gonna force you to be in the kid's life if you don't want to, but it was only right that you knew. I just. . .have no idea what the fuck I'm gonna do, or even any idea of how to take care of myself while. . like this. . .or how to take care of a kid. Hell, my _houseplant_ died!"

"Look, we'll figure this out, somehow." Jack tried to reassure him but in truth he was freaking out more than a little himself. "Ask anyone who knows me, I'm a man of my word, if I say we'll find a way to figure this out, we will."

"We better." The words came out a growl. "Fuck, I gotta go, I was supposed to have these photos back to my client 3 hours ago and would have if this hadn't decided to happen at the worst fucking time. I'll call you later." The phone hung up with a decisive click.


	3. Chapter 3

"Son of a bitch!" Jack flopped backward on the mattress after he hung up the phone, frustrated. "What in the Hell am I supposed to do with another kid? What the Hell am I supposed to tell Kim? On top of that, I have no idea where I even am on this case." He got up, lifted the folder, and tossed it back down on the table, snorting in frustration. "'Children of the Planet'. What the Hell does that even mean? None of this shit makes any sense at all."

He pored over the transcripts again, the pictures of the overweight blond would be immediately recognizable to Reno, though Jack had no idea who he was, just that he had a lot of money and a lot of influence. "This guy is fucking crazy. Bomb threats, extortion, you name it, he's done it, all in the name of someone he calls 'Mother'. But until we can figure out who this Mother is we don't have a hope in hell of unraveling it."

Jack of course had no idea what was involved, or the danger it would later put his erstwhile one night stand and unborn child in, it would be months before it would all come unraveled and when it did it would be one of the most insane and long running cases he had ever worked, one that would possibly save the world as they knew it.

The phone rang again, and he groaned when he saw it was Nina. "Nina, unless someone is dying, I want to enjoy the rest of my day off, so back the Hell off me unless that's the case." The last thing Jack wanted to deal with was work, especially after the news he'd just gotten. "I'm serious, Nina, I am not-in-the-mood."

"I was just checking on you, Jack." She assured him. "You've been so distant the past couple of months we were worried about you." Nina paced in the small office she had called him from, sweeping her fingers through her close cropped wavy dark hair.

"Yeah, well I've been dealing with some personal issues, Nina, nothing I want to talk about, really, but it's something I have to deal with on my own. " Jack held the phone on his shoulder as he lifted the bottle of whiskey from the top shelf of his liquor cabinet and took a deep sip from the bottle. "I'll let you know how it turned out when I know." He hung up the phone, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Great, just great. I got a _guy_ I barely know pregnant, I still haven't told Kim yet, and now Nina's prying. How much worse could this get?"

He started going through the folders again, hoping for something, anything, to distract him from the thing on his mind. He didn't want to think about the unborn child that was his on the opposite side of the country, it would just drive him insane, and an insane Jack Bauer was the last thing anyone wanted or needed. "This guy is the key to it, I can see that. If we can catch him, we can crack this."

"Boss, I need to talk to you." The guy that walked into Reginald's office was skinny and shaky, with the pale and sunken cheeks, yellow teeth, and bloodshot eyes that spoke of heroin addiction. He was kept on payroll because he was usually reliable, especially if provided with his drug of choice. He had plenty of money to spare to provide the boy with that. "You know how you told me to watch for a few people? I saw one of them."

That got a lofting of one bushy blond brow. "Do tell, boy." He said, reaching into his drawer. "You know there will be a reward for you if you help me get the ones I want out of the way eliminated." Smoke curled around his head from the expensive Cuban cigar he held between pudgy fingers, taking a deep inhale from it. "Details, you know I need details."

"The redhead, Boss. I saw him in a restaurant in Manhattan. He was alone, but I followed him from there, just like you told me to. He has a PI office in Queens, and an apartment in Brooklyn. I have the address right here." The man handed Reginald the slip of paper with the address on it. "Can I have my candy now, Boss?"

He smirked, and tossed his informant a bag. "Remember, don't cook all that at once. It's likely a lot stronger than what you're used to. Only the best for those who do their best for me. " He didn't actually care one whit if the boy overdosed, after all, he had plenty more junkies where he came from, why did it really matter? A bit of arm candy to keep them in thrall wasn't going to break him, and it would keep him from getting caught too soon.

As soon as his informant left, he sat at his desk, his face taking on a thoughtful look. "I need to keep Reno off my trail. Of all of those who could have ended up being drug here, I had hoped it wouldn't be him. He is far too intelligent for his own good, and for mine."

_Don't worry so much, my son_, That satin voice whispered in his mind again. _He will fall to us. . .I will make use of him, as I did his father. If he will not fall to my will, I will destroy him as I did his mother and cousin. One way or another you will not have to worry yourself about him. _

"Of course, Mother." The smirk played over the fat face, "Of course there is also that CTU agent to worry about, but he has not gotten close enough to us yet for us to be truly concerned. The world will be ours, to hold in an iron grip." The expression was one that spoke of confidence. "It will fall to us, to our whims, just as we desire."

"Dad, what has been going _on_? You've been so silent. Don't tell me, you have a girlfriend you don't want to tell me about? You started drinking again?" Kim sat across from Jack as they had lunch at Border Grill, the agent picking at his taco salad. "I mean I know you're pretty close mouthed, but Dad, this is just a little bit ridiculous. If you have a girlfriend I'm not going to yell at you or anything. But you haven't said a word since we got here."

Jack sighed, shaking his head. "Kim. . .it's not that. It's that something happened, and I don't know how to say it without you thinking I'm out of my mind. " and he pinned her eyes, his own serious. "I got someone pregnant, Kim. The one involved isn't ready for it, I sure the hell am not, and neither of us know what to do about it. Abortion isn't an option, the one in question is too far along for that. It was an accident, a one night stand. Remember when I was meeting that PI from New York? That's when it happened."

"But Dad, that PI was-"

"A man, I know. This is why I said it was hard to explain without you thinking I'm nuts. The guy's. . .not completely a guy, if you know what I mean."

Kim just gaped at him. She wasn't sure what to even say to that. After all, she'd never heard of someone with that condition before outside of extremely rarified medical journals, and it was the first time she'd ever heard of one being fertile. "Well, what do you intend to do now, Dad?" she asked, feeling more than a slight twinge of jealousy. Ever since her mother had been killed she had been very picky about who her father had contact with, so to hear he'd gotten someone pregnant. . she wasn't very happy about it.

"Like I told Nina, though she doesn't know there's a kid involved yet, when I figure that out I'll let you know. I don't know yet. He said I didn't have to be involved in the kid's life if I didn't want to be, but right now I don't know what I want, and neither does he. Right now he's more worried about the fact that it happened at all." He was half expecting Kim to start in on him, because he knew that's the way she was most of the time.

"Mom wouldn't be happy about this, you know. She always hated when you did irresponsible things like sleeping with someone when you were drunk, the affair you had with Nina didn't make her very happy either." Kim knew guilt tripping her father was likely to make him mad, but it was how she felt, and it was her way to speak her mind when she felt a certain way.

"I know that, but mistakes happen, Kim, and all we can do is take responsibility for the things that happen and try to correct them. So instead of saying 'Oh, Terri wouldn't like that' why not give me some ideas for trying to solve the mess I've gotten myself into?" Jack normally wouldn't snap at his daughter that way, but he was very much at the end of his rope with the mess, and to have her harping on him about it too had just made it overflow.

"Oh no, Dad, oh no. .. you can deal with this mess on your own. I have my own problems to deal with, like trying not to fail my exams for this semester." Kim shook her head at him at that. "Mom used to say to me I'm a grown up. I'm saying the same thing to you. You're a grown up, Dad, act like one."

Reno sat in his office two weeks later, head in his hands. Over the past two weeks he'd been running himself ragged, and he was honestly beginning to wonder how much longer he was going to be able to do this job. "Son of a bitch! And what the Hell am I supposed to do when I start showing? The way society is around here they treat anyone who isn't normal like shit. A pregnant _guy_? That's going to have me dealing with shit I don't even know how to think of handling."

He splashed cold water over his face in the sink in the office bathroom, not sure he even wanted to know what was going to happen now.


	4. Chapter 4

"Jack, you have an assignment in the Hills!" Nina called from her office as she hung up the phone. "You're meeting the same liaison from last time there, car bombing. They took the woman out of her car, apparently she's being held hostage, the liaison has information you need to free her. She has information on the group you've been investigating, you know, Children of the Planet? If you can get to her it may help you crack this thing."

Jack looked up, nodding response, then groaned when he heard that he'd have to work with Reno again. "Great." He muttered. At least it would give him some chance of getting closer to the gang he'd been chasing that had been as elusive as a ghost, which would make the awkwardness of dealing with the man (yes man, he had to get used to that, as hard as it was) carrying his child a bit less jarring. "This is going to be fun. Not." He packed his gun, his phone, and all the other equipment he'd need, and headed for the site.

The area where they were to meet was hot and dry, as a lot of the places in Southern California were, which lead to the redhead sitting in his car with the air conditioning on for most of the hour that he waited for Jack. Of course the fact that the hormonal influx caused his body temperature to rise wasn't helping matters at all, the hot flashes in Reno's opinion needed to get the Hell away and stay there. That and the sleepiness that was also a result only added to his irritability. "You need to stop being such a pain in my ass." He muttered as he looked down at his belly that was just beginning to show the first signs of growth, though he'd done well to hide it beneath sweats and other loose shirts, he'd already had his secretary notice he was gaining weight, he didn't want to deal with anything else.

The car approached, causing him to lift his head as he took a swig off his bottle of water, staying hydrated being one of the orders from his doctor he fulfilled due to the fact that he ended up feeling like shit if he didn't. "Son of a bitch, he's finally here." He climbed out of the car, walking over to Jack as he got out. "I'm no more happy to be dealing with you again right now or being reminded of that night than you are, but I got an evil feelin' about these people you're chasin', and I really want 'em taken down if I can at all make sure it happens." His hand clutched the red orb on the gold chain around his neck, a gift from his mother when he'd been a child. It was useless here, there was no Lifestream to power the conduit that would allow the beast the material was designed to summon into the physical realm, but it was comforting just to have it in his possession.

Jack just gave him a shifty eyed look. "Nina said you had information on the girl that got kidnapped." The words were drawled out, the look he gave the redhead speaking volumes. He hadn't seen him since that phone call two weeks before, he hadn't particularly wanted to, after the last visit with his daughter, dealing with his personal life was something he'd never been good at and this was no different.

"Yeah, I do, I have it if you need it, but it's gonna take a bit to find her. I had to get it from a few people, and I gotta make sure it's accurate before I rely on it to actually use for trying to find her." He took another swig off the water bottle, trying not to show his annoyance, Jack would wear on his nerved on his best day considering the thing-which-was-not-to-mentioned, but with a girl's life on the line too it just made it all the more difficult to do it. "I need to get the address of my informant out of the car, I need to go see him before we try to make this rescue." The fact that he could smoke was just making the jitters he was dealing with all the worse.

Jack just shot him another look, and said "I'm driving. I'm not sure I trust you to drive, really." he snorted at the aggrieved look he got in return, annoying the redhead was likely to become his new hobby, it was amusing to watch him twitch when he said something that pissed him off. "Just give me the address and point me to where I have to go." another smirk crossed his face as the other's mouth opened and closed as if he was stunned the agent would even suggest such a thing to him.

"What do you mean, you're driving? This is my contact." Reno was indeed annoyed by it but really he figured getting pissed at Jack likely wasn't going to help. He blamed how temperamental and twitchy he was on the hormones anyway, just one more reason he wished this hadn't happened. He shook his head at the amused expression the blond wore, though, and decided it wasn't worth getting angry over. "Just get us there in one piece, please. I heard what you did to that guy you drove around with the dead body, I really would rather not be turned into a milkshake." He shot Jack another disgruntled look when the man chuckled at him.

"I only do that to people that make me angry. You haven't made me angry. Yet." Jack started the car and pulled out, entering the address into the GPS. "How well do you know this guy?" he asked Reno, wanting to be sure they weren't just walking into some stupid situation that wouldn't tell them anything at all about what they needed to know. "I mean, do you trust him?"

"Yeah, I trust him. The guy's never steered me wrong before. As for how well I know him. . .well, when I first ended up on this Minerva forsaken hellhole he saved my life, taught me the native language, got me the documentation I needed to work, and got me set up in the office I'm in now. I trust him with my life." That Reno was even saying this to Jack indicated the level of trust he had in the man even if he annoyed the ever living Hell out of him sometimes. "He'll help us, and any information he gives us I'd trust completely. I've never had him lie to me, and on only one occasion out of all the times I've gone to him has he been wrong, and that time wasn't his fault."

That seemed to be good enough for the agent, who nodded. Jack trusted Chloe the way Reno did the man in question, he knew that friends like that were hard to come by, and if you had one you trusted them with your life. "If you're wrong about this, I won't be happy, just so you know." He told Reno that with a tone of voice that said when he wasn't happy bad things happened.

"I know how stupid it is to say it, but _trust_ me." Reno gave Jack one of those looks that said he had this under control. "I used to do the same shit for a living that you do, except if I failed I usually ended up pretty badly injured, and if I failed badly enough, my boss would have killed me for it. I know what I'm doing." He leaned back against the seat, but scowled when Jack pulled out a cigarette. "If I can't smoke, which I can't for obvious reasons, neither can you. Put that thing away."

Jack returned the scowl when he was told to put the cigarette away. He needed something to calm his nerves, dealing with the him without a cigarette wasn't something he wanted to do. "Just get the information we need." He said, irritable, though that wasn't much of a shock. He actually liked the redhead, had a feeling Reno felt the same, but the thing neither of them would talk about made things pretty awkward.

When they got to the house, the man that opened the door was older and grizzled looking, with a Hispanic look about him. "Hey, Chief." Reno smiled and high fived the man when the five foot seven inch tall man with the whiskers, dark eyes, and graying shoulder length blue black hair let the two in. "Been a while since I've seen you. I owe you for your help in getting me set up, and I hate to ask you even more, but. . . I need your help."

Nicanor smiled waving the two inside. "Is no problem, Senor Kiribani, you know this. You and I are friends, si? We help each other, because that is what friends do. Now sit down, tell me what it is you need, yeah?" The middle aged man walked in a bustling manner from the entryway into the kitchen, getting a pot of coffee going, he knew when Reno came to him they'd end up downing a whole pot by the time he got out of there.

"Nic, I need to know more about the girl that got kidnapped, and where she is. She's vital to a case." The expression on Reno's face spoke volumes. He hated women being in trouble, in some things he was very much a gentleman.

"She's in a warehouse in East LA, on East Lake Avenue. They're holding her there trying to see what she knows, but for some reason, they need her. " Nicarno handed Reno his cup of coffee, offering one to Jack as well who took it with a wave of thanks. He wrote the address down for them. "Be careful, if they catch you, they'll kill her and you."


	5. Chapter 5

"This didn't turn out how we hoped it would, did it?" the remark was made in a cutting tone as Reno crouched behind a dumpster, the sound of bullets bouncing off he and Jack's cover not making him very happy. "Shouldn't they have run out of ammo by now? Fuck a duck, there's only five of them, I feel like a bird in a fucking hunting game!" He took a few seconds to reload, then popped his head up again to fire back, hoping to disable them. The bullet that hit the dumpster right next to his head sent him diving back behind his cover again with a loud and vicious curse.

"Yeah, so I noticed." The expression on Jack's face was equally arch, he would be half tempted to shoot the investigator himself if it weren't for it being his child ensconced within the slender frame, he wasn't dick enough to kill a kid. He pulled a flashbang from his belt, the flash of bright light it gave off was enough to send the guards staggering so the two of them could incapacitate them. "Any of you say a word, I will come back and cut your tongues out myself. Don't test me." The promise was dark enough to elicit them to all nod. No one was stupid enough to challenge Jack Bauer twice.

They crept around the building, peering into the back window. The woman in question was alive, but Reno had a shock of recognition when he saw her."Elena. . ." the word was spoken in a hushed, stunned tone. "Come on, Jack, we gotta get her out of there. Just trust me on this. We gotta."

Jack just gave him a narrow eyed look, the expression speaking volumes of his feelings on the matter. "We move when I say we move. You've got skills, I'll give you that, but this kind of situation is my specialty and trusting me on how to handle it would be wisest." The blond gave Reno a look after that that very much made his point even more firmly. Listening to him would be best and healthiest not only for the two of them but the woman inside as well.

"You might not fucking understand this, Jack, but that is my friend in there. She is the only person from my past that I have seen since I got here. I am not letting something happen to her, especially not because I sat around on my duff and did nothing when it happened. Now, are you coming with me, or do I go in there alone and hope to Hell I don't get my fucking ass shot?" Reno spat the words at the CTU agent. He meant it. After speaking those words he crawled in through the window.

Jack groaned and eye rolled. "God dammit, worse than my daughter, I swear to God." He muttered as he watched to make sure the idiot didn't manage to get his ass plugged, that wouldn't help either of them, he knew that. He watched as the slim redhead reached the woman and untied her from the chair, he could see she was unconscious, but didn't seem to be injured outside of that. He groaned again when Reno practically shoved her into his arms. The barb about him not getting it had stung, but he wasn't about to tell the redhead that.

"Listen up." He finally said as Reno crawled back out. "You may not think I get it, but I do. There is a girl in my life that I would do anything for, just as she's risked her life and job for me. I've had a friend like that. But losing your head over it, and maybe your life, wouldn't have helped her one bit. You need to think shit through."

Reno almost flinched. He knew Jack was right, but he was beginning to wonder when the other man's opinion had actually begun to _matter_ to him. It hadn't before, not until he began to think about the fact that this man's child was within him. Despite how afraid he'd been when he'd first found out, that _mattered_, again for reasons he wasn't yet quite sure of. "I've been on my own in one way or another since I was fourteen years old. I think I can take care of myself." He snapped as they carried Elena back toward the car.

Jack muttered a few choice curses and loaded her into the backseat, buckling the belt. "I'll sleep on the sofa, she can take my bed. We need to get that information from her." He couldn't help but feel this had been too easy, that they were somehow being set up, but they'd lived through the rescue, and he supposed that was all that mattered for that moment in time. He had no idea how wrong he was, not yet, nor what would happen when the redhead went back to New York that would change the course of their relationship, and everything else.

Honey colored eyes fluttered open a few hours later, a soft moan ringing from Elena's throat. She tried to orient herself, her vision still swimming a little until she spotted the man sleeping in the chair next to the bed she was in, causing her to scramble into a sitting position. "Reno!" she yelped out. "Sempai, what are you doing here?" To Jack it would sound like gibberish, after all, Midgar Common wasn't English, in fact it sounded a good bit like old Norse, but Reno would recognize it right away, even if he himself hadn't spoken it in several years.

The former Turk let out a snuffling sound before his own eyes slowly pried themselves open. "'Lena?" The word came out in English at first, he'd gotten so used to speaking it it was almost automatic now, until he realized she'd been speaking the tongue of their homeworld and region and switched to it. She likely didn't know much English at all, he'd have to translate it for Jack and take notes. "You're safe, Laney, I promise. You're with me, well, an' Jack, but even though he acts like an asshole, don't let it bug ya, he's a friend." He yelped, then laughed when she threw her arms around his neck and held onto him tight.

"I was so worried about you, Reno-nii! You've been missing for _months_! Shachou declared you _dead_, for Minervas's sake! Why are you _here_ when you should be home?" Elena's voice held a tone that was almost scolding. "After you left the Turks all went their separate ways, Hell, Rude moved in with _Tifa_, which I would have found hard to believe if I hadn't seen it happen!"

"Whoa, whoa, Elena, give me a second to breathe! I'm not sure how I got here, to be honest. You remember the night of the blizzard up on the mountains outside Healen, right? I got stuck in it, hit a curve wrong, the car flipped, an' I saw this blinding flash of light. Next thing I know I'm layin' in front of this shack in New Mexico, this guy took me into his house, patched me up th'best he could, then called an ambulance. I was hurt real bad, everyone thought I was gonna die for a while there. When I got out, he taught me th'language here, an' helped me get a job. I've been here since, I'm ok now."

She shook her head. "But you're not. You don't understand! All of it, all of the things we tried so hard to get away from, to overcome. They're back, Reno. . .the President, he's here. Nothing is ever going to be all right again." She leaned against him, trying so very hard not to just in to despair.


	6. Chapter 6

The news had torn through his mind like a whirlwind, forcing Reno to close his eyes and try to find his center as memories swirled around his heart, making his body tremble. There were things Elena didn't know, the President of ShinRa Incorporated had been a figure of terror for him as much as he had been the man who signed his paychecks, for reasons he didn't discuss with anyone because there were some places in a man's psyche that just weren't meant to be explored. The things that had befallen him at the hands of that man were ones he didn't even like to think about.

"You're completely sure of this, Laney?" Reno didn't like to think about the possible repercussions of this at all, the thought of the man being alive in and of itself was bad enough. He wasn't going to give into fear, and the memories of the events would go where the screams and blood and death went, into the darkest corridors of his mind where it would never see the light of day again. "If you're sure, we gotta prepare."

"I saw him, Reno, yes, I'm sure." She tried not to sound exasperated with him, she knew he didn't like the bastard, but she knew what she'd seen and hated when people didn't trust that what she'd seen was really what she'd seen.

He cursed, almost viciously. "Jack's gonna shit a brick over this. I gotta go back to New York for a while, though. You're comin' with me, someone's gotta teach you English after all, might as well be someone who knows both right?"

"You're right, but you know your friend might not want you to leave, he seems to be a bit protective of you. Let me guess, this-" and she prodded at his belly. "Is his?" She couldn't help the impish grin as the crotchety look his face took on confirmed what she'd said.

"Yeah." He confirmed, but the tone of voice was almost non committal. "Not that he really wanted it." His expression took on an even more petulant tinge. He didn't really resent Jack for it, but they hadn't discussed things since the last fight they'd had over it over the phone when Jack had made it fairly clear another kid wasn't something he was ready to deal with.

Elena swatted him, her mouth narrowing into a thin line. "Don't say things like that! Of course a father would want his baby, it's just silly to think otherwise! You just need to actually _talk_ to him and stop being your typical pig headed self."

Reno just shot her a look, then turned over, attempting to go back to sleep. He wanted to believe her, and he knew she was right, he and Jack needed to talk, but at that moment, he wasn't sure how, and he had a business to run anyway, he didn't have time to deal with the hassle.

A few hours after, he was tossing in his sleep, the demons had come calling.

/

"_Mr. President?" Reno was trying to keep the typical leer from his face, he knew that the President didn't like his attitude a lot of the time, and he paid for it in spades when it happened. Usually in the form of stockade time or extra shifts, but occasionally the old man's temper would snap and he'd end up with a good thrashing. Not something he enjoyed and he'd rather not end up in that position on this day. _

"_I have an assignment for you." He handed Reno the folder, watching the man as he took in what he was being asked to do. This was a test of his loyalty, to see if his ties to ShinRa were truly tighter than his ties to his old neighborhood. _

_Reno's eyes widened, then narrowed. "You can't be fucking serious? Dropping a plate on an entire sector to kill six people? Don'tcha think that's just a bit well. . .overkill, boss? Ya know I'll follow the orders, always do, just figure killin' so many for just six people is kinda over the top." _

_The blow to the face had been utterly unexpected, after all, Reno had felt he'd been reasonable in saying it was overkill, when he'd said he would still obey, he was simply bringing up a valid concern, really. "You don't question me, boy. No one questions me and stays in my employ long." _

/

He sat bolt upright, fighting a scream, but managing, as the rest of the images of the dream played behind his eye lids for a moment. "Fuck, hate that, hate it, never wanna have that dream again, ever." He waited for his heart to stop pounding before getting his things together. He was going home so he could be ready for what he had a feeling was coming.

It didn't take long for him to get his clothes packed into his bag and get a plane ticket for himself and for Elena. "Jack's gonna be pissed, but I have some shit I need to have together before I even think about dealin' with the bastard. And mosta it is _back_ in New York, I don't have it here."

/

Jack woke sometime in the early morning hours, eyes just barely cracking open. "Shit son of a bitch!" he swore when he realized the living room where Reno and the woman they had rescued had been was empty. "If he went back to New York, with her, I am not going to be happy, and I bet you any amount of money they did."

He paced, growling as he did. "I'm going to call him when he gets back to New York and yell at him. . .is it reasonable? No, but right now I don't really very much care." Jack swept his fingers through the spiked blond hair, looking around at his living room. The blood stains on the carpet he was 99% sure were from the rescued girl, but at least nothing was broken, he supposed he should be thankful for that much.

"Well, what the Hell do I do now?"

/

Getting Elena settled in had been a bit easier than he had expected, it had required a bit of ice cream, some decent selling body wash, and a few drinks. She trusted him of course, which helped. "I don't know a whole lot, Reno-nii. I was kidnapped as soon as I ended up here, and I'm not entirely sure why I'm here or what happened. "

His lips thinned. "Stay here, I got a job, I'll be back soon, but I gotta make a living, and that means I gotta take whatever cases I can, an' I got one I gotta take care of." He walked out and headed for his car, hitting the remote ignition, the one that Rude had told him when he'd had one back home that he was asking for his to get stolen to have, the engine starting was followed by a sudden _fwoosh_ sound that was accompanied by a flash of light and fire that rolled up into the early morning sky.

"Holy fuck me son of a bitch. . ." Reno could only gape at what remained of what had once been his car. "If I hadn't had that remote ignition. . .If I'da been in the car. . ." He was shuddering, he couldn't help it, the thought that if he'd been in the car he would have been dead is enough to leave him thoroughly spooked.

"Once Jack hears about this he's gonna blow his stack." Reno shook his head, sighing. "And he will hear about it, no way he won't, he's been checkin' up on me, I know he has. "

/

"Job's done, Boss." The thug dropped the photos down on Reginald's desk that showed the burning car. "Even if he wasn't in it, I'm betting it scared him enough that he won't be investigating anything for a long time." He grinned as his boss tossed another bag of the good candy down in front of him. Working for the guy was good, so far as he was concerned. The guy paid well.

"You weren't seen, I trust." The expensive cigar smoke filled the room as he began pacing, his hands behind his back as he watched the man. "You know what will happen to you if you get caught. You can't underestimate the boy, he has the senses of a cat." The warning was given with good knowledge. The intelligence and independence of the redhead slums rat had caused him a lot of trouble, though it had been helpful to him as well. But in this case it could spell the failure of everything he was trying to build here.

"Do not forget that you and your brothers will have a place in this grand new world order." A smirk crossed his face. "Free enterprise, no boundaries, nothing to hold you back from what you want, the class structure gone. You'd like that, wouldn't you? Just good old fashioned _commerce_ to base things on. Nothing illegal as long as it's profitable."

He spread his arms to indicate the expanse of what he intended to take, smirking the whole time. "It will be mine, and I will share the wealth with those wise enough to ally with me and not to betray me. I know you like being wealthy, you like having things. " he set his hand on the man's cheek. "Don't you?"

/

Jack's phone rang shortly after the explosion of the car, and he scowled when he heard. "What do you mean he still went to work even after someone bombed his car?" He was annoyed, for some reason he couldn't put name to, but it was similar to when Nina had done stupid things to put herself in danger before. "I'm coming out there. Thanks for telling me this." He scowled as he began to get a small bag packed, tossing it into the back of his car, he took off. He'd pick up a ticket, park his car in the airport garage, get the redhead, and insist he stay until the kid got there.

He wasn't going to admit he was actually starting to _care_ about the guy, no, Jack Bauer did not do love, he hadn't since Terri had died, and he had no intention of ever falling in love again. Even if the heart did have different ideas.

/

It was a total of ten hours before there was a knock at Reno's door, and he groaned. It was exactly as he'd thought, when he opened it to see Jack standing there. "C'mon, Jack, it's not that big o'deal, it's not like I hadn't had my life threatened before, ya know. So they blew up my car, so what. I'm alive, isn't that what matters?"

"You're alive, yeah, but you're fucking reckless." His mouth was pressed closed entirely and the rest of his expression spoke of a huge amount of anger that Reno was risking his life in the manner that he had been and continued to do. "You need to actually start thinking instead of leaping into things with both feet the way you _always_ do."

"You ain't my mother." His jaw was tight as he put his hands on his hips, standing up to Jack with that fierce expression Rude would know well meant don't even bother to fight with him about it. Jack wouldn't know that yet, though. He hadn't had enough experience with the redhead to realize that. "I don't gotta do shit you want me to do, I like you, but God Dammit, don't try to fucking mother hen me! I am capable of takin' care of myself, even if you don't think so."

"They blew up your _car_." He points out in a rather pithy tone. "If you'd been in they would have been picking up your pieces off the _street_. Don't even tell me you can handle this by yourself, training or not." Jack didn't heed the pink flush that spread across the fine featured face, which was something he was likely to regret later. He hadn't learned to read the signs of when it was smarter to back off and be sneaky rather than trying to tackle a Reno-related problem head on.

"I wasn't, so fuck, calm down." He shot another of those looks at Jack that said he best back off _now _and if he knew what was best he would.

"God, why do I even try!" Jack threw his hands up in frustration. "You act like it's a sin if someone happens to not want you to _kill_ yourself. Terri was _never_ this stubborn, she'd at least listen when I told her she was in over her head most of the time."

"Then if this Terri was so much fucking better, why don't you go bug _her_?" The words were spat at Jack. Of course Reno had no idea what had happened to Terri, Jack had never shared it, as there were so many other aspects of his life he'd never shared, even with this one that was going to have his child. He had no idea what the reaction would be of such a thing being said.

Jack didn't think, at all. He simply reacted to the pain the unwittingly cruel words had caused, fist lashing out to connect with Reno's chin, knocking him off his feet. "She's dead." Is all he says.

Stunned surprise rang through Reno for a moment, freezing muscles and overwhelming the suddenly pounding heart. That hesitation would get him killed in other circumstances, but he was too stunned to do anything else. He spun on his heels and walked into his bedroom, slamming the door and locking it, no other sound but that.

"Oh, good fucking going." Jack facepalmed immediately upon realizing just what he'd done, he felt more than a little guilty, but of course in typical Jack fashion he was more likely to cuss himself out for it than to actually _look_ as guilty as felt. He walked over to the door, not sure what else to even do now, he'd just punched the mother of his child in the face, and granted, it wasn't a woman, so he'd reacted the way he would have with a man.

"Look, I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have done that, that was stupid, hitting wasn't a good thing to do at all." He knew it sounded lame, but Jack Bauer had never been good at apologizing for being a dumbass.

The response was the door opening just a crack, and the barrel of a gun poking through. "Get out of my house, before I put a fucking bullet in your skull, father of my kid or not. No one hits me that way and gets away with it. " The voice was low, the tone almost growling. Reno was not ready to deal with Jack one bit.


End file.
